2024 10 28
Busted car, creative decoration. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. July, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
Recently I stumbled upon a tweet that really resonated with me. Someone had posted some clips of basketball games in Europe, with wildly enthusiastic fans, loud chanting, dancing, yelling, etc. The poster was wondering why NBA games in the US have nowhere near the same level of enthusiasm. You’d think that the world’s premiere league, in the country basketball was invented, being played by the world’s best players, would inspire fans to raise their level of enthusiasm to match. Brilliantly, someone responded with the most eloquently-simple reply that completely summed up the sole reason crowds in the US are often tame: a screen shot of ticket prices for an NBA game; each seat costing hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
Back in 2016, I was fortunate enough to be a dedicated Cubs fan. That season, I attended a few dozen games at Wrigley Field (including the game five!) and the atmosphere was usually incredible. Of course, the Cubs went on to win the World Series to conclude their storybook season. I recall a few days after they beat Cleveland, while coming off a massive life hangover with Trump winning the election to become president, I had a realization that really cheered me up. The Cubs roster was young and all of the contracts had many years remaining on them. The idea that the Cubs might be a new baseball dynasty, providing me with entertaining ball for years to come, really cheered me up.
As it played out, the Cubs did not maintain their level of excellence and the team ownership pulled their games from television (unless you subscribed to their own service), so I was no longer even able to watch games. I haven’t been much of a Cubs fan since then, but I bring all of this up because perhaps the even bigger reason I lost interest in maintaining my fandom was that going to games was no longer fun! After the team won their first Series in a century, the tickets become hot. Everyone wanted to hang out at Wrigley to watch the lovable no-longer-losers. As a result, ticket prices went way up. Ownership was thrilled and making tons of money, surely. Vast sections of the stadium, once open to anyone, got roped off and turned into special-access sections at elevated prices. All of this change severely rubbed off on the vibe inside the stadium. You could clearly feel it, if you were paying attention, as many people filling the seats no longer were. The wild enthusiasm from the previous season was severely muted and the team struggled to win games.
This idea that expensive things are obviously better is something that I have rejected, thankfully, my entire life. In fact, expensive things are often far worse than whatever you can grab in the discount bin. While my concept of how and why money ruins things is still quite vague and undefined, I do think it goes a long way in explaining why this country, specifically, is going through some shit right now (to put it lightly). Too many people have far too much money. And this is not to say I think socialism is the answer, because I don’t. But clearly you can’t buy taste and right now we’ve got thousands of people out there thinking their money can buy whatever influence they want it to without realizing it doesn’t quite work like that.
So many of us are clinging to our cash, willing to overlook whatever traces of morals we have left after decades of excess, in a desperate attempt to continue to attend bland sporting events.
-Clayton
